Rosella/Roselle wine first attempt

[Shayne Edwards]

June 13
Must temp is 21 degrees SG is down to 1.004
Sterilizing another bucket to strain the must into before transferring to the two 5 litre secondaries. Wondering if I should add some campden tablets at this point. I haven't and will wait for advice leaving a little space just in case.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Brother Red, like a tornado she visited, caused havoc and disappeared leaving a trail of cleanliness behind her. If she hadn't left there was no way I could do this batch of wine in the kitchen fermenting like it is.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Well here is my learning around this recipe so far.
As I chose to do the simmer on the fruit rather than pouring boiling water over it , the next time I will pull the fruit from the must a lot earlier. The reason I say this is that the fruit has a slimy feel and it developed a slightly off taste and no I didn't stick my hands in bleach before touching.
I will use a segment of a stocking to hold the fruit next time as the wash bag let a lot of fruit out in to the must.
That said it is in two 5 litre glass jugs under water traps right now. photo to follow.

 

[wildhair]

Typically I do NOT add Campden tablets at the first racking. I will let it ferment to dry, .990-ish - then dose at the second racking. I try to keep the sulfates to a minimum and have not yet had an issue. I've read some folks like to dose it every rack.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Right Red I will hold off, have a look at the photo and give me some feed back if you will.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Did you show your daughters the research on the gloriousness of having of having a mass of beautiful red hair?

 

[wildhair]

Well, we already know about the genetic superiority of the ginger gene - but they did get a kick out of the article. The wine is looking good - nice red color......colour.

 

[wildhair]

This is my youngest grand daughter - helping her mom out in the kitchen..............

 

[Shayne Edwards]

What an absolute cutie, thank god for our wives contribution to the gene pool, hey? That said, you are right "the ginger is strong with you."

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Will put up a new photo tomorrow, turns out I didn't strain all the fruit, think I need to rack again.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

17th June
Sorry did not do photo but the final part of the ferment pushed the last of the unstrained fruit to the top of the 5 litre demi johns. Must finished just below 1.000. So sterilized everything again and restrained the must into a clean bucket with the addition of campden tablets. Still have that irrational fear of nasty invisible wee beasties and felt that I was introducing a lot more oxygen after the final ferment, along with more handling than what normally may happen.
Still not thrilled with how the must smells but all I can think to do is push on and see what time brings me. The colour or if you will color doesn't appear as vibrant.

To minimize headspace I used Stones Green Ginger Wine to top up the demi-johns. Only concern is kick starting the ferment again as Stones is very sweet, but it was all I had that wasn't a big red wine.

 

[wildhair]

I understand the conflict between introducing O2 and trying to drive out the CO2 (degassing). "Splash racking" for instance - supposed to drive out the CO2, but doesn't it introduce O2?? I sometimes rack into a container that I can seal, then shake the hell out of it (or bloody hell, if you prefer) then crack the seal and let it.............degas. Phhhhhhttttttt. My wife yells at me when I degas - but it's good for the wine they say........... "They" being people more knowledgeable than I am.
Man - you do love that ginger! You need to make some Rhubarb wine - very neutral and good for topping up. If it starts the ferment again - then it wasn't finished in the first place.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

Ok Red starting to suspect you are messaging my darling wife, are you????
She wants me to turn over a garden bed to Rhubarb, for her it is all about the desserts, Rhubarb crumble, apple and rhubarb pie etc.
Maybe I could plant some out just for her sake and if there is some left over I could make a little wine maybe?

Well no secondary ferment and no clearing agent. Think I will just do monthly racking and let it clear slowly.

Funnily enough I was going to ask about degassing, however I'm not so sure that you may be a reliable source of truth on this one but for information on Dutch Ovens you may well be the man. (Not sure the slang translates on this one)

 

[wildhair]

Not to worry - I have no designs on another man's wife. 1 woman is trouble enough, I always say. Especially if that woman is a Latina...............or perhaps a ginger Scot. Maybe the love of Rhubarb is in the Scot genetic code? She'd likely love a tipple of rhubarb wine to wash down that crumble. Nice thing about rhubarb - there's always plenty and you can freeze the hell out of it. And - if you plant a bunch for her, it will make her happy and you can have enough for some wine. It's a win-win!

I may not be a reliable source on most things - 'cuz if I don't know the answer, I will make shit up.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

...and that is a skill in it's self that is very much underrated.

 

[KatrinaOK]

Where to start?
Right now I am in the deep dark depths of a Brisbane winter. Some nights it gets down to a chilly 10 degrees C (0 degrees freezes water, 100 degrees boils it) Daytimes sometimes make only 22 degrees, last year I actually had to put on a jumper for a couple of hours.
Without using heat pads etc it isn’t a perfect time for our little fermenting yeasty friends. So I hear you ask why the hell are you trying to make another batch of wine?
Well the simple response is, my Scottish monster in law is here, combining her with my Scottish wife produces an irresistible force. Apparently my beer and bait fridge/freezer out in the shed is no longer a sacred man cave relic. Space had to be cleared for the preservation of Scottish treats like haggis, black pudding, scotch pies and square sausage. Quite frankly, I need the bait and the two frozen bottles of vodka, so I pulled the bags of last seasons frozen Rosellas.
So instead of making a nice safe and reliable batch of jam or cordial, I decided to try and make some wine from them. In all honesty I may have checked out a beer or two while repacking the freezer, but that wasn’t the final arbiter of decision making, pretty sure it was my innate stupidity that put me here. So here we go again. (It’s not nasturtiums Tom but it’s close enough for government work)

Hi, I am in Beerwah. I was wondering if you separate your calyxes from the seeds when making wine?